29. Temporary peace

As Gareth was busy recovering, inside the disciplinary department the person responsible for tampering and disposing of information was currently being yelled at by the disciplinary head, if the rooms were not solid and soundproof it the entire room would have been vibrating from the sound.

A few times that the yelling had knocked the suspect off his chair and off the floor, the leader would then berate him for being such a weakling, yell a few centimetres away from the mans face before grabbing him and shoving him back onto the seat before continuing his yelling.

This lasted an entire day before the leader had left leaving the suspect shaken out of his soul. The disciplinary offical would then list out the crimes committed to the unresponsive man and then showed various pieces of evidence and the result of tampering causing great suffering to a well respected refugee by many soldiers.

After a small pause the official then listed the punishment which was stripped of his rank back to a reserve soldier never to be promoted for more than 10 years, clean the residence of Gareth, removal of various captain benefits and reduced to a normal human being.

They had also found out that the captain was working for the aristocrats and had been following their orders, which made all the soldiers dislike them more. As such when serving the various aristocrats they would hem and haw as well as do extremely sloppy jobs of serving them having more than once dirtied the clothes by 'accidentally' dumbing dirty food, water or whatever on to them. Of course they knew who to target and what not to target as the development of secret truth serums made it simple to find out which family was responsible for this.

Back in the lab, all the disgusting matter on Gareth body had fallen off and now he almost looked like a skeleton, there were still a few pieces of discoloured flesh that stuck to the body and multiple veins wrapping the body but over 70% of the body had become a skeleton.

The medical officer was frowning very deeply and Rebecca who had came to visit actually didn't recognise Gareth anymore until she saw his name on the monitor where she covered her mouth in surprise.

Nearly all of the tissue On the body had been compromised such that it was considered extremely difficult to recover and it was decided to extract the diseased tissues instead and give him new tissue instead. The tissue would be grown on Gareth body but were slightly modified giving Gareth a better body in terms of movement, strength and agility.

Apart from the few big chunks of flesh that had fallen off Gareth body, inside the pod the nano bots had finished reattaching and healing all of the various broken and fractured bones including the foot. The medical officer began the process of building the various muscles and vessels, there was also pieces of flesh that were still usable but simply dislodged floating in the fluid that were also being reattached. Along with the missing organs and skin it would take 4 more days for Gareth to be whole again.

Days went by and Gareth was being completed bit by bit but the days didn't pass by quietly, on the first day the prisoner had escaped with the help of the big families and an intense chase coupled with gunfire sounded throughout the base. They were captured in the end and after deeper examination of the prisoner the military discovered a few dirty secrets that would jeopardise some of the big families assets. Keeping a record of all these assets, the prisoner was kept on full on watch. The prisoner had also wanted to commit suicide but was denied the attempt and now with even stricter surveillance it was impossible to rescue or silence the prisoner with what the big families currently had. In time more secrets would be unearthed and the various families would fall into a larger pit.

The rest of the captured personnel were investigated and they didn't have any other information apart from being used by the various aristocrats. With members of their family caught and evidence of attempted break in. The military almost stopped helping the aristocrats altogether, now every single member of each family would have to line up to get food and the food which used to be from the upper level had deteriorated into normal refugee food that could just fill their bellies.

The military also considered taking back the military residences but decided not to, instead they began removing some forms of entertainment requiring internet and electronics. The response was outrage and complaining but after hearing what the military had gotten hold of could only sulk inside their residences. However they couldn't hide inside for too long as they needed to socialise especially those nobles.

With their extremely thick faces they didn't seem to care that many soldiers gossiped behind their backs and some even did it in front of them, they held their heads high and continued interacting with other fellow members of their class.

On the second day, various military scouts had discovered a large army of enemies from an alien faction called Cresomorphians, an alien race that were able to morph part of their body into various weapons and were headed in this direction. The news was quickly locked down and no information was leaked however the atmosphere was gloomy. The refugees could feel something was wrong but they couldn't get any answer by any means.

On the third day, it was confirmed that a mid sized army over 500,000 units are coming towards the base, although news had been locked down various enemy scouts were seen by many refugees and speculations began to occur. The base went onto defensive mode and the three gates were closed and locked. Many soldiers and transports are carrying various equipment to and from the walls of the base. The various turrets began to go operational and a barrier inside the fortress had begun to power online.

Seeing the soldiers with solemn looks plus the alien aircraft whizzing by the refugees had an inkling to what was going on and it begun to spread and the refugees began to get unsettled. Sure enough the military had come forth to calm down the masses and just said it was a military exercise. Meanwhile Gareth had almost regrown all of his muscles and veins and by tomorrow he would have regrown his skin and be fully healed.

The fourth day, far in the distance a big number of Cresomorphs were heading towards the base where the refugees were, their head was shaped like a water drop 💧 with lightning ⚡️ shaped eyes. They had long thread like necks and doll like legs. Their leg joints and body were spheres, on top of their small ball like body was a collar that were either triangular, square or circular depending on their unit disposition and their head could tuck in to their collar to secure their head in place nod protect their necks from frontal and side attacks. Attached to the collars were their arms, one stubby arm with pointy fingers used for grabbing and another arm that was a long flat carpet. The carpet could morph into various melee weapons or if the carpet arm had spikes on them could morph into a firearm.

At this time the refugees had gathered at the refugee camp and a base officer shared the news that an impending attack was incoming. Panic began to ensue but the military kept it under control, the officer continued that the refugees should hide behind the inner wall for safety. Everyone began packing their beLongings including the nobles who had demanded hiding in the fortress itself.

In a few hours everyone huddled behind the tall inner walls of the base and began praying, meanwhile the soldiers began checking the equipment and calibrating the turrets. A tense atmosphere pervaded the area as everyone waited for the incoming attack.

Gareth almost finished fully healing and 75% of his skin had been restored, he was currently semi conscious and would fully heal by the end of the day. However it would not come true, soon multiple explosions resounded and there were shouting and screaming outside the medical building and an alarm resounded.

The siege had begun.